beast of the east
Active member
I find images of Satan as the beast among the most terrifying. Thanks for scaring me right before bedtime. :evil:
Mr. February
- Thread starter cappy105
- Start date
I find images of Satan as the beast among the most terrifying. Thanks for scaring me right before bedtime. :evil:
The fact that we're playing great ball right now and are back in the hunt for an at large bid is wonderful and exiting, however it does not negate the fact the the staff did a piss poor job with this team earlier in the year. The result being that we dug ourselves in a huge whole that we now may or may not be able to dig out of. Why did it take the staff so long to figure out that Jordan needed to be running the show? Or that Max shouldn't be seeing significant minutes? Or how about the bizarre substitution patterns and use of time outs? I could go on but the fact of the matter is that those of us that where critical of Lavin and staff were plenty justified in our criticism, and owe no apology to anyone. And while this recent run has been thrilling, I for one will still consider this season a failure if we do not make the big dance as a result of our earlier season failures.
Although I will not say this as eloquently as others, I am going to field this comment. I do believe that St. John's has a very knowledgeable fan base and the starting rotation seemed obvious to every casual fan. How can Lavin not see this? He had Sanchez in practice all of last year and the trip in Europe for this team to "gel". Basically everyone was back from last year's roster.
Anyone that has played competitive organized basketball knows there is a big difference between practice and Big East games. For example, I'm sure Sanchez didn't get much practice time with the 1st team last year. Why would he - he couldn't play? Now, lets get to the most important position on the floor in the college game....pt. guard. Rysheed Jordan was obviously not on the team. So all of a sudden 40% of the starting five has basically no minutes with the team. Europe is supposed to fix that?? Europe was more for team bonding than great competition. On top of that Rysheed's best friend died. Another wildcard is Max Hooper. I'm sure in practice (and all over youtube) that Hooper doesn't miss. Had a great game against Penn State before conference play and the board was split whether he should be in the starting lineup or not. So, now you are Lavin. Can the kid do it in Big East play? Well, Lavin has to find out.....and put's the kid in at the end of the Providence game (EARLY IN THE SEASON). On the surface it seems like a horrible decision, but how else are you going to find out what Hooper is capable of? It turns out that Hooper was in way over his head and Lavin learned that he will only be used sparingly as situations dictate.
Now onto "Noone has gotten better under Lavin's leadership". Can we drop this one now? To me it is obvious that Obekpa is not the same player and Harrison plays a much more controlled game. If you want to say Rysheed was always this good and Lavin was holding him back.....I'm not buying it. I think he handled this very delicate situation in a way that only Lavin could. I do not think it was far-fetched to think this get was half way out of here with all that he's been through. Anyway, I'm glad Lavin is the man steering this ship. When things weren't going well, the talk was "well Lavin recruited these kids, so he has to take responsibility". That is true so as far as these kids go this year, it's Lavin's doing and I'm happy just to watch it all play out.
As to players adjusting to college game and getting better.....just look around the league at the top 100 recuits and see how they are doing. Many are sub par players and many take ttime to develop. Just look at some of the old Johnnie targets and see how long they took to develop, ie:Quinn Cook- had a good soph year and playing good this year, no where near Dukes best player. Look at Naadir Tharpe who as a Jr is just now playing really really well, how about Rico Gathers a once Johnnie commit, is he one of the best players in the country let alone the Big XII ? As far as im concerned the verdict is still out for these kids, but Obekpa led the nation in blocks last year, and is up there this year. Sampson got rookie of the Big East when the Big East was still a monster. After going through maturity problems, D'Angelo has become one of our most reliable, mature players who has a thirst for the big shot. Greene, i like what we have gotten from him. As far as Jordan is concerned, the kid has magic and i think Lav is bringing him along just fine. Sanchez is a player who came in with high expectations, in my opinion, too high. Im happy with him coming off the bench and not starting. In Lav's defense, he had all these new toys and had to see which ones played better with eachother. He figured it out, and we are all loving this teams potential. Point being, players develop in different stages, I think our guys are just fine and now is not the time evaluate them all, lets wait at least until the season is complete. I think that if in the beginning of the season someone were to say, ok the johnnies will be on the bubble with a 17-9 record with some tough close losses, we'd say ill take it. Bottom line is winning solves problems, another win tonight is a MUST. Stay focused fellas....stay hungry, stay humble. Go Johnnies !!!
Maybe every fan base is more critical of their own players because we scrutinize them more closely but we (many of us) are brutal toward our guys. If Dlo was on another team we would rave about how great a player he is. Green would be that player that brings intangibles and is a great complementary player. Gift and Dom would be the tough scrappers that every team needs. Unfortunately, here they are viewed as garbage.
Btw, I read a Georgetown board after our game, just to see what was being posted during the game. They are as childish as we are. There was a full blown feud. The only difference is that, almost unanimously, they agreed that they are a superior team, with a superior coach, and it was inexplicable that we were putting a pounding on them. I guess they aren't conditioned to it like we are. In fact, we now have an inferiority complex that is so bad that we can't even envision comfortably beating a bottom of the league team. Of course anything can happen but how can anyone not call us a prohibitive favorite tonight.
Btw, I read a Georgetown board after our game, just to see what was being posted during the game. They are as childish as we are. There was a full blown feud. The only difference is that, almost unanimously, they agreed that they are a superior team, with a superior coach, and it was inexplicable that we were putting a pounding on them. I guess they aren't conditioned to it like we are. In fact, we now have an inferiority complex that is so bad that we can't even envision comfortably beating a bottom of the league team. Of course anything can happen but how can anyone not call us a prohibitive favorite tonight.
beast of the east
Active member
I would think the biggest difference is they use bigger words.
When I read the criticisms of Lavin it seems half the posters want more playing time for Branch over Greene and half the reverse. Half want more playing time for Pointer or Sanchez , the other half want less playing time.
If Lavin wasn't hired where would SJU be with Hewitt, McKillop, Baron etc. They wouldn't be talking to high schoolers like Jordan,Sampson, Briscoe etc.
I won't pretend to be smart enough to judge Lavin on his X's and O's but to me his strengths are similar to Lapchick , McGuire and Looie. He can attract ball players with talent who will play hard and he can maintain a great relationship with the media of his time.
None of the three former SJU coaches were known as great x' and O's strategists.
If Lavin wasn't hired where would SJU be with Hewitt, McKillop, Baron etc. They wouldn't be talking to high schoolers like Jordan,Sampson, Briscoe etc.
I won't pretend to be smart enough to judge Lavin on his X's and O's but to me his strengths are similar to Lapchick , McGuire and Looie. He can attract ball players with talent who will play hard and he can maintain a great relationship with the media of his time.
None of the three former SJU coaches were known as great x' and O's strategists.
Red the fact that 40% of the original starting 5 where newcomers was no excuse IMO for our failures earlier in the year. Especially when the 2 newcomers were a 24 year old JC transfer with international experience and one year practicing with the team, and the other was one of the top point guards in the country coming out of high school. I give Jordan more slack than I do Sanchez simply because of his age and the adjustment to living away from home. How many teams do you think return 4 or 5 starters year in and year out? The staff had better get used to plugging in at least 2 new players every year. As for Max Hooper, there was plenty in his past to tell the staff that he was not a Big East level talent. The fact that Lavin refused to see that until long after most of us had is truly mind boggling. As for "no one has gotten better under Lavin's leadership", earlier in the year it certainly seemed that way. Over the past nine games things have changed. But I haven't seen to many posters singing that tune over the last nine games. Like all of us on here, I am thrilled at the way things have changed, and I sure hope they continue. However the talent was here from the get go for this team to make the big dance, and ultimately this team and the staff will be judged on whether or not they make it.
Monte, I think just last week people were still calling for Max to get more playing time. Everyone here has an opinion but none of us knows the players as well as the coaching staff.
I'll say it again, the 0-5 start was not as bad as it seemed. DePaul was the only bad loss. Our schedule was front loaded and now we are set to benefit from a soft landing. Weaker opponents and more home games.
Go back to the season record prediction thread. No one had us winning more than 10 games. 9-9 and 10-8 is where even the biggest optimists had us, myself included.
I'll say it again, the 0-5 start was not as bad as it seemed. DePaul was the only bad loss. Our schedule was front loaded and now we are set to benefit from a soft landing. Weaker opponents and more home games.
Go back to the season record prediction thread. No one had us winning more than 10 games. 9-9 and 10-8 is where even the biggest optimists had us, myself included.
basketballjones
Well-known member
Nah, there were posters suggesting a 26 win season. I remember this because I said, can we get to 20 wins and .500 in conference before we start predicting a 26 win season
Agreed, but making the tourney was pretty much the benchmark for whether or not we were going to label this season a success. Don't see why that should change. A nice run in the middle of the season is enjoyable now, but it won't mean a hell of a lot to me a month from now if we're not dancing with the others.
i dont care if we get 26 wins or 20, id rather go deep into the tourney. Obviously 26 is deep into it though. Again with Sanchez, he is perfect just filling in quality miniutes off the bench. After too many mins he breaks down mentally and starts to make silly fouls and shots. Also he is so much more of a liabilty then Gift or Obekpa. Really impressed the way Obekpa has been playing lately. Big win tonight fellas, Go Johnnies!
jc1305us
Member
I am just happy that the buzz is coming back to the program, and I am happy for the kids, who will realize that there is nothing like winning in the big apple! They took a chance coming here and I hope they continue their successful ways. It's amazing how desperate NY is for winning basketball. If Lavin wins here, he will be the king of NY.